Congratulations, Stan!

Congratulations to Stan Horton, who received the Order of the Diocese of New Westminster (ODNW) yesterday.  This award recognizes Stan's service to the parish.  He edited and published the parish newsletter, The Courier, for 23 years.  Stan has prepared the assignment lists for readers, greeters, intercessors and counters and served on the Parish Council.  No doubt he has done much more during his many years at St. Catherine's.  (We know Stan has been at St. Catherine's for a long time:  he is proud to say that his son was the first person baptized after the new church building on McAllister Avenue was dedicated in October 1963.)

St. Catherine's is proud of our past and current ODNW winners pictured below:  Tony Sauder, Margaret Warwick, Stan Horton, Ann Blue and Bernie Poitras.

Car Trunk Sale on September 17 Will Aid Refugees

St. Catherine’s Anglican Church will host a Trunk Sale on Saturday, September 17 at 2211 Prairie Avenue, Port Coquitlam from 9 AM to 1 PM.

Here is your chance to sell those items you no longer use and support a good cause.  Trunk (car) spaces are $10.00.  There also will be a concession. Proceeds of space rental and concession will assist Syrian refugees.

For more information and to book a space email saint.catherines@outlook.com.

An Exceptional Pentecost

Bishop Melissa places Order of the Diocese medal on Tony Sauder

The Bishop performs a baptism

Pentecost was an especially big day at St. Catherine’s.  Bishop Melissa made an official visit.  She conducted the morning service, which included a baptism, two confirmations, two reaffirmations of faith and welcoming five people into the Anglican community of faith.  After the service, members of the congregation gathered to ask the Bishop questions ranging from how to grow our parish to whether she was going to vote in the US election.

Bishop Melissa’s visit was also an opportunity for her to present the Order of the Diocese to Tony Sauder.  Tony was selected for this award almost a year ago, but he was travelling and unable to attend the official award ceremony and service.  St. Catherine’s is proud of you, Tony, and happy to see you wearing your medal at last.

A Seder for Social Justice

A tradition at St. Catherine's is to hold a Seder on Palm Sunday.  This year our Seder took a different approach.  It was a Seder for Social Justice.  Our special guests included Rabbi David Mivasair, who led the Seder, as he has for the last few years, and Dr. Saad Bahr, Imam of the Poco Masjd Alhidaya.  We heard stories of tikkun olam - acts of kindness to repair the world.  Instead of Bible readings, we read quotations related to social justice and repairing the world, including the following:

It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful so they can realize their ambitions, so they can earn good livings, so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows.  Those are worthwhile goals.  But it is not enough to progress as individuals, while our friends and neighbors are left behind.  Perhaps we can bring the day when children will learn from their earliest days that being fully man and fully woman means to give one's life to the liberation of the brother or sister who suffers.  It is up to each one of us.  It won't happen unless we decide to use our lives to show the way.  -- Cesar Chavez, farmworkers union organizer

A reactionary once said, "A woman belongs at the front of the Synagogue like an orange belongs on a Seder plate."

Congratulations to the Venerable Karen Urquhart

Reverend-to-Be Patricia Ratcliffe congratulates
the Venerable Karen Urquhart on her appointment

St. Catherine's rector, Rev. Karen Urquhart, has been appointed Archdeacon of the Lougheed Area, which makes her the Venerable Karen Urquhart.

An Archdeacon is a member of the clergy who is appointed to assist the bishop in certain administrative and pastoral duties in a diocese.  The Venerable Karen will have responsibility for Anglican parishes from Burnaby to Mission.

St. Catherine's is proud of you, Karen+.

World Day of Prayer - March 4

On Friday, March 4, 2016, the women of Socialist Cuba invite us to join with them in the World Day of Prayer celebration, praying under the theme, “Receive Children. Receive Me”.  Each year the World Day of Prayer service brings with it a feeling of curiosity.  What will we learn about the theme and the focus country? What will challenge, inspire and encourage us?

National Flower of Cuba is the white butterfly jasmine.  Cuban women have used the flower not only as an adornment for their hair, but also to transmit messages during liberation wars, and as a sign of their being Cuban.  There can be no better emblem for the 2016 World Day of Prayer service written by the World Day of Prayer committee of Cuba. Their service transmits their witness and experience of being Cuban and Christian even when their faith meant isolation within the country they love.

With the triumph of the Revolution, a trade embargo by the United States brought Cuba economic isolation and material scarcity.   Within Cuba a similar isolation formed around people of faith in the officially atheist state.  Now the embargo is lifting, but uncertainty remains for the Cuban people.  What can these women tell the rest of the world about how faith endures in a secular world, of material and social challenges, and of hope?

On March 4, 2016, Christians in more than 170 countries and in 2,000 communities across Canada will gather to learn about, pray for, and celebrate Cuba in solidarity with the women of Cuba through the World Day of Prayer. Please join us and invite your friends and family to attend the World Day of Prayer 2016.

A local World Day of Prayer Service will be held at

7:00 p.m., Friday, March 4, 2016 at:

ST. CATHERINE’S ANGLICAN CHURCH

(at Trinity United Church)

2211 Prairie Avenue at Shaughnessy Street

Port Coquitlam, BC

For more information, please contact St. Catherine’s Anglican Church at 604-941-9812.

In Canada, the World Day of Prayer is coordinated by the Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada.  For World Day of Prayer materials or to learn more about WICC, please visit our website or contact us:

Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada, 47 Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto, ON  M5S 2C3   Tel: (416) 929-5184; Fax (416) 929-4064; E-mail: wicc@wicc.org; Website: www.wicc.org; www.facebook/WICCanada

The World Day of Prayer has its roots in an ecumenical day of prayer organized by women in Canada and the United States in 1920.  This event became the International World Day of Prayer in 1922, and Christians around the world began celebrating this event on the first Friday of March.